Medicine: Capsules, Nov. 21, 1955

The U.S. Public Health Service wound up its study of the Cutter vaccine "incident" (TIME, Sept. 5) with a report that has now found live polio virus of the most dangerous strain (Mahoney, of Type I) in all six of the suspected batches of vaccine; also, Type II was found in one lot and Type III in two more. Of the 401,000 vaccinated with Cutter material, 79 got polio; 90 others were infected by contact with Cutter-vaccinated children.

¶The Association of Military Surgeons gave the 1955 Gorgas Medal* for distinguished service to Colonel Victor A. Byrnes of the U.S. Air Force Medical Service. Ophthalmologist Byrnes has just reported that even an old-fashioned A-bomb set off at night can cause blindness in unprotected eyes 40 miles away by boiling" the liquid in the retina. Strangely, the injury might be painless.

¶To help physicians detect rheumatoid arthritis in its earliest stages and thus treat it more effectively, Connecticut's Grace-New Haven Hospital invited doctors to submit blood samples from suspected victims. Said the Arthritis and Rheumatism Foundation: A test developed in 1947, then only 50% accurate, has now been simplified and refined to 90% accuracy. Basis of the test: for an as yet unknown reason, mixing blood from an arthritic patient with specially treated sheep blood causes the sheep-blood cells to clump.